Wow man theres gonna be some good looking bass's there when finished up keep up the good work I'm looking foward to seeing the finished up products when done. 
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A Newbie's Unusual Take On A J Bass
- Thread starter Tribbinator
- Start date
Hey guys, some updates for you!
As the picture I showed before showed a prototype router-thicknesser set up, and I got it up and running! It works very well, but it was very hot outside the day I was doing all this work. Therefore I took some quick shots on my phone, so you'll have to excuse the quality of some of them. Took the top down from .95" to .7", so right around a quarter of an inch came off. What a difference!
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After that I thicknessed the solid back piece (yellowheart)
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I also thicknessed the headstock down a bit, to properly fit the tuner shafts, but I didnt take a picture of that because I almost ran into disaster. The thickness was already very uneven on the headstock, and when I went to level the head from its lowest point, I almost took off the parts that keep the herringbone consistent on the back of the headstock. I've now sanded it down, it still has an abnormal swoop to it from the fingerboard side, but I'll be working ever so carefully on it.
Here's some pictures of the whole body after thicknessing - it's getting prettier. Sorry for the quality again, the lighting + my phone stink.
(Note: these pictures of the headstock are before the last bit of router-thicknessing...I headed back out after these and havent had a chance to take a photo of the new headstock yet. Also, the thickness on the body has changed, you might notice.)
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That's all for now folks! I hope you enjoyed the eye candy! I have finals coming up soon - so I may have to put this build on hold for a bit, but don't worry, I'll finish it!
As the picture I showed before showed a prototype router-thicknesser set up, and I got it up and running! It works very well, but it was very hot outside the day I was doing all this work. Therefore I took some quick shots on my phone, so you'll have to excuse the quality of some of them. Took the top down from .95" to .7", so right around a quarter of an inch came off. What a difference!
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
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[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
After that I thicknessed the solid back piece (yellowheart)
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I also thicknessed the headstock down a bit, to properly fit the tuner shafts, but I didnt take a picture of that because I almost ran into disaster. The thickness was already very uneven on the headstock, and when I went to level the head from its lowest point, I almost took off the parts that keep the herringbone consistent on the back of the headstock. I've now sanded it down, it still has an abnormal swoop to it from the fingerboard side, but I'll be working ever so carefully on it.
Here's some pictures of the whole body after thicknessing - it's getting prettier. Sorry for the quality again, the lighting + my phone stink.
(Note: these pictures of the headstock are before the last bit of router-thicknessing...I headed back out after these and havent had a chance to take a photo of the new headstock yet. Also, the thickness on the body has changed, you might notice.)
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That's all for now folks! I hope you enjoyed the eye candy! I have finals coming up soon - so I may have to put this build on hold for a bit, but don't worry, I'll finish it!
Well Tribbinator, you sure seem to put high standards in your 'first' project, and it all looks very professional.
One concern I would have, however, is the weight of it all, and maybe the balance. You have probably already considered that in AutoCAD, but do not forget to aim for something you're comfortable playing with for long sets.
Good Luck & looking forward to the final pics,
Koen.
One concern I would have, however, is the weight of it all, and maybe the balance. You have probably already considered that in AutoCAD, but do not forget to aim for something you're comfortable playing with for long sets.
Good Luck & looking forward to the final pics,
Koen.
deepestend
Commercial User
- Feb 21, 2003
- 6,249
- 8,172
- Disclosures
- Website and Social Media at Sadowsky
Thank you everyone! Yes weight is something I feared - the back being solid Yellowheart. I'm going to weigh all my hardware and the body tonight, and if need be - ill create another template to route some chambers into the back of the bass! Thanks again for all your kind words!
hey man the bass looks awesome cant wait to see it finished! when you get done please post some sound clips i would love to hear it too!
Wow! Hard to believe it's been almost 2 months since I've had the chance to give an update on this, sorry about that folks! Graduating high school turned out to be a bigger ordeal than I wanted, so I wasn't able to do what I needed with this bass, until now.
Here's a long-needed update, and it includes the finished fretboard and my trial-and-error truss rod adventures.
So first I designed this truss rod as follows: a 4 foot threaded rod which I heated up with a propane torch and then bent in half. From there I put a stop nut on it, a spacer (made from the next size up hex nut), and of course the turn nut (just a long hex nut)! The black you see is simply a trick I read about from a member here (Thumpin'_P) who attended a very fine luthiery school (RV), who wrapped their rods in electrical tape!
The prototype:
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All was working perfectly as shown in these photos until...I broke it. I'm a complete newb to anything metal working, and after tightening the nut and untightening it several times to make sure it worked...Sure enough it snapped right on the heat-tempered bent end. My dad told me is most likely because I didn't dowse the heated end in water to make the rod strong instead of weak.
Oh well! I kept positive and looked at this as a "Well, thank God it didn't snap inside the neck!" moment. I then called the snapped rod my prototype and continued with this:
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A new rod, thinner too. Thinner so it gives me more wiggle room when shaving the neck down, so I won't have a baseball bat neck because of a thick truss rod. Basically the same principle, except version 2: two rods seperated, yet with a weld-free stop at the end of the two rods.
The weld-free stop nut at the end (note the expansion between the two rods towards the left edge of the photo...that's with the nut tightened.)
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By this point you may be asking yourselves: "Why didn't he just buy a Hotrod from StewMac?" Well the answer to that is two-fold - 1.) The rod gets a bit expensive when you throw on the shipping, somewhere around 16 or 17$ ? and 2.) I wanted to build my own, to further my own knowledge, and to get it cheaper (Materials from Home Depot for both the prototype and the functional rod cost about 4.50$)
Now, I have my doubts about the rod working properly, as I have no way to test it...But in theory, I lay the rod in, the rod has excellent capacity to recurve - It should work!
(If any of you have a legitimate reason why I shouldn't continue with my homemade rod - please tell me! I havent routed for it yet, and I'd love to avert any potential catastrophe; as I've worked very hard on the headstock!)
Moving on we have the finished fretboard (For the most part, fine fret leveling will ensure after I get a rod into the neck and the board onto the neck)
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Please excuse the bad mockup, and once again the photo quality :/
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Yes, the fingerboard did gain a slight bow from installing the frets into it before mounting the board on the neck...But the bow is negligible - as I can just press on the board and it flattens back out (Plus if the force stays with the wood, it should act like a support to the truss...theory again
)
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Here you can see I just need to hammer / press a tiny bit more once I get that dang board onto the neck!
And the last bit of work I did today was step back and look at the neck pocket. After looking at it, and looking back at my old template...I realized I had made a mistake. Looking at the template, I saw that my cad drawing for the fretboard had one side of the fretboard just slightly wider from the center line to the right side than the left side. Long story short it threw off my alignment. With such a definitive center-line in the herringbone, I didn't want it to look offcenter. Luckily I keep all my scraps, and it wasn't hard to just clamp the old piece back on there in order to cut the pocket a bit more to the right.
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And when I say a bit more to the right, I mean, about .1", so just a slight move to keep the pocket aligned, and tight.
That's all for this time, thank you so very much for looking, and I'll keep you updated!
Here's a long-needed update, and it includes the finished fretboard and my trial-and-error truss rod adventures.
So first I designed this truss rod as follows: a 4 foot threaded rod which I heated up with a propane torch and then bent in half. From there I put a stop nut on it, a spacer (made from the next size up hex nut), and of course the turn nut (just a long hex nut)! The black you see is simply a trick I read about from a member here (Thumpin'_P) who attended a very fine luthiery school (RV), who wrapped their rods in electrical tape!
The prototype:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
All was working perfectly as shown in these photos until...I broke it. I'm a complete newb to anything metal working, and after tightening the nut and untightening it several times to make sure it worked...Sure enough it snapped right on the heat-tempered bent end. My dad told me is most likely because I didn't dowse the heated end in water to make the rod strong instead of weak.
Oh well! I kept positive and looked at this as a "Well, thank God it didn't snap inside the neck!" moment. I then called the snapped rod my prototype and continued with this:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
A new rod, thinner too. Thinner so it gives me more wiggle room when shaving the neck down, so I won't have a baseball bat neck because of a thick truss rod. Basically the same principle, except version 2: two rods seperated, yet with a weld-free stop at the end of the two rods.
The weld-free stop nut at the end (note the expansion between the two rods towards the left edge of the photo...that's with the nut tightened.)
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
By this point you may be asking yourselves: "Why didn't he just buy a Hotrod from StewMac?" Well the answer to that is two-fold - 1.) The rod gets a bit expensive when you throw on the shipping, somewhere around 16 or 17$ ? and 2.) I wanted to build my own, to further my own knowledge, and to get it cheaper (Materials from Home Depot for both the prototype and the functional rod cost about 4.50$)
Now, I have my doubts about the rod working properly, as I have no way to test it...But in theory, I lay the rod in, the rod has excellent capacity to recurve - It should work!
(If any of you have a legitimate reason why I shouldn't continue with my homemade rod - please tell me! I havent routed for it yet, and I'd love to avert any potential catastrophe; as I've worked very hard on the headstock!)
Moving on we have the finished fretboard (For the most part, fine fret leveling will ensure after I get a rod into the neck and the board onto the neck)
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Please excuse the bad mockup, and once again the photo quality :/
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Yes, the fingerboard did gain a slight bow from installing the frets into it before mounting the board on the neck...But the bow is negligible - as I can just press on the board and it flattens back out (Plus if the force stays with the wood, it should act like a support to the truss...theory again
)[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Here you can see I just need to hammer / press a tiny bit more once I get that dang board onto the neck!
And the last bit of work I did today was step back and look at the neck pocket. After looking at it, and looking back at my old template...I realized I had made a mistake. Looking at the template, I saw that my cad drawing for the fretboard had one side of the fretboard just slightly wider from the center line to the right side than the left side. Long story short it threw off my alignment. With such a definitive center-line in the herringbone, I didn't want it to look offcenter. Luckily I keep all my scraps, and it wasn't hard to just clamp the old piece back on there in order to cut the pocket a bit more to the right.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
And when I say a bit more to the right, I mean, about .1", so just a slight move to keep the pocket aligned, and tight.
That's all for this time, thank you so very much for looking, and I'll keep you updated!
- Oct 7, 2000
- 18,619
- 38,943
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
Starting to love these threads. Subscribed. Great work. I wish I had the machinery, skills, patience, and talent to do this kind of stuff. Fingerchopoffophobia keeps me far from most powertools also.
Haha, that just made me spit coffee all over my screen and keyboard, thanks for that.
Bass is coming along nicely op, I dig it.
Hopkins
Commercial User
Just for future reference the truss rods Grizzly and Bestbassgear sell are less expensive and don't require as deep or a rout, or a special router bit like the stewmac hotrod.
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,025
- 1
- 31,761
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
First of all, very cool build! It looks very labor-intensive, but the end result will be well worth it, no doubt!
Now, about that truss rod - how deep of a route will you have to do to accommodate it? I have always used LMII double-action rods, which require a 3/8" deep channel. StewMac's rods are a fraction deeper, but not much. Too deep of a channel will dictate your neck thickness, and neck thickness is a very personal thing, but too much thickness makes for uncomfortable playing. So what does yours measure?
And if you do wind up using your homemade rod, you might want to flatten out the threads on the surface that contacts the fingerboard - leaving those threads will cut into the wood, possibly creating stress points that could spell disaster later.
Now, about that truss rod - how deep of a route will you have to do to accommodate it? I have always used LMII double-action rods, which require a 3/8" deep channel. StewMac's rods are a fraction deeper, but not much. Too deep of a channel will dictate your neck thickness, and neck thickness is a very personal thing, but too much thickness makes for uncomfortable playing. So what does yours measure?
And if you do wind up using your homemade rod, you might want to flatten out the threads on the surface that contacts the fingerboard - leaving those threads will cut into the wood, possibly creating stress points that could spell disaster later.
Really? Okay, sweet - I've never heard or looked those up, but I will now, thank you!
Ah, okay, I might want to leave this one out of the build then - Mine sits at .45" or something odd like 15/32 depth.
Thank you for the information though, it might just be worth the extra couple of dollars to just go the safe way with LMII...I didn't realize as I was building my own rod that the average depth for the commercial trusses is so low!
I think I'll set aside my rod then, maybe for a prototype build in the future! Thank you again for the info!
P.s: The labor makes it worth it for sure!
Hopkins
Commercial User
I've used both of these, pretty much the same rod, different color. They work just fine and are less expensive than LMII and Stewmac.
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http://www.grizzly.com/products/Truss-Rod-2-Way-For-Bass/H6032
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http://www.grizzly.com/products/Truss-Rod-2-Way-For-Bass/H6032
Thanks Hopkins! I think I'm going to order that along with my pickups, pots, and bridge cover. I decided to go with DiMarzio P/J's after reading positive comments here on TB about the 'bang for the buck'...So I'll still have J Bass specs, just with a P pickup in the neck position. (It's my build so I can always route for something different too!)
Awesome build project, particularly for a young man. You have much to be proud of.
I'm very happy to read that you are going with a commercial truss. I am by no means an expert in the matter but it would seem to me that you are likely to get a steel alloy more well suited to the job than that found in common threaded rod, which I think is usually lower-grade and not as strong.
I would have loved to see a Squier Katana or Fender Performer shaped headstock on this bass. The herringbone would have looked great coming to the point of that shape.
iJazz - Just another TB quarterback.
I'm very happy to read that you are going with a commercial truss. I am by no means an expert in the matter but it would seem to me that you are likely to get a steel alloy more well suited to the job than that found in common threaded rod, which I think is usually lower-grade and not as strong.
I would have loved to see a Squier Katana or Fender Performer shaped headstock on this bass. The herringbone would have looked great coming to the point of that shape.
iJazz - Just another TB quarterback.
"I'm very attached to my fingers and would like to stay that way" is how I put it.
Wow, thank you for all the positive words guys! Means a lot to me. I have an update for you guys, not much by means of progress, but a few (low-quality, sorry...phone 
) mockup pictures! I'll also include my plan of action, to have it out there for the community, and myself.
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The tuners do have ferrules, I just haven't pounded them in - I want to get it final sanded and the finish on before that!
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(The tuners all are the same height, my bed just makes them appear to descend in height towards the nut in this picture. The tuners are also no-name tuners pulled from a 90's Peavey Fury...The bass says Crafted in the USA, and the tuners are seemingly solid Nickel - I'll take it!)
That's where the build stands thus far.
Heres my steps to finishing - I'm nearing the end!
1.) Order Truss Rod, Pickups, and Bridge Cover (AllParts without the big Fender 'F')
2.) Route for truss rod and route heel shape
3.) Install Truss, glue fingerboard, glue binding
4.) Level / fret job
5.) Drill tuner screw-holes
~Neck finished besides the finish!~
6.) Route neck pocket back into correct shape
7.) Route / chamber the yellowheart portion. (See Picture)
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8.) Sandwich body together
9.) Major routing step, route body to template, route pickups, finish routing control cavity, roundover, etc.
10.) Spray pickups flat white
11.) Finalize body, drill screw holes etc
~Body finished...besides the finish
~
Assembly : Neck to body, pickups in place, bridge on, cut nut, put on bridge cover (Photoshop to decide to spray flat white or not?), electronics, knobs, etc etc.'
Okay, so I'm a long way away, but by going step by step and measuring five times, and cutting once, and then fixing my mistake and cutting twice - I'll make it there!
P.s. : I decided against a pickguard, and a backside cavity route instead. I want a bridge cover, but not a neck pickup cover because thats right where I play.
P.p.s : I know for sure I want the pickup casings flat white to match neck binding, but thoughts on a flat white bridge cover? (I know it's hard to visualize at this stage, especially when I dont have it!)
) mockup pictures! I'll also include my plan of action, to have it out there for the community, and myself.[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
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The tuners do have ferrules, I just haven't pounded them in - I want to get it final sanded and the finish on before that!
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
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(The tuners all are the same height, my bed just makes them appear to descend in height towards the nut in this picture. The tuners are also no-name tuners pulled from a 90's Peavey Fury...The bass says Crafted in the USA, and the tuners are seemingly solid Nickel - I'll take it!)
That's where the build stands thus far.
Heres my steps to finishing - I'm nearing the end!
1.) Order Truss Rod, Pickups, and Bridge Cover (AllParts without the big Fender 'F')
2.) Route for truss rod and route heel shape
3.) Install Truss, glue fingerboard, glue binding
4.) Level / fret job
5.) Drill tuner screw-holes
~Neck finished besides the finish!~
6.) Route neck pocket back into correct shape
7.) Route / chamber the yellowheart portion. (See Picture)
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
8.) Sandwich body together
9.) Major routing step, route body to template, route pickups, finish routing control cavity, roundover, etc.
10.) Spray pickups flat white
11.) Finalize body, drill screw holes etc
~Body finished...besides the finish
~Assembly : Neck to body, pickups in place, bridge on, cut nut, put on bridge cover (Photoshop to decide to spray flat white or not?), electronics, knobs, etc etc.'
Okay, so I'm a long way away, but by going step by step and measuring five times, and cutting once, and then fixing my mistake and cutting twice - I'll make it there!
P.s. : I decided against a pickguard, and a backside cavity route instead. I want a bridge cover, but not a neck pickup cover because thats right where I play.
P.p.s : I know for sure I want the pickup casings flat white to match neck binding, but thoughts on a flat white bridge cover? (I know it's hard to visualize at this stage, especially when I dont have it!)
